Saturday, September 29, 2007

The trip home

We left for the airport at 4 am this morning and landed in Jacksonville at 7:40 pm. Our bags were searched extinsively by the Colombian police. We were sent cheese and bollitas from people in the church to bring to families in the states. They poked holes in everything. We had a 3 hour layover in Bogota. We thought we would have plenty of time to eat and rest...that didn't happen. We waited an hour in the immigration line. It seemed that they kept placing people in line by the color of their skin. Light skin was not at the front of the line. It was incredible. Lines lines and more lines. After we go through the two checkpoints to get to the gates, we waited at the appropriate gate. The gate # changed. Jimmy and I were waiting with the bags while the others went out and ate. We went to the new gate and guess what, another check complete with scanner and metal detector. Needless to say, Jimmy and I didn't eat. My stomach was feeling a little queasy and since I've had the Montesuma's revenge once before, I was a little nervous.

Off to Miami. What a circus MIA is. You couldn't tell that you were in America. We still needed a translator. We had to get our bags and go throught customs and them go to the American Airline counter to get our boarding pass. Finding the correct American counter was almost impossible. We were successful. We made it to Jacksonville and really felt like we were home.

Once home we spent time pulling out the souviners and talking about our respective weeks. It is really good to be back in my comfort zone.

Melody

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